tists. Immediately striking is the editors’clear argument for studying protists: 1) Protists are complex organisms involved in all forms of biodiversity on Earth, from the oceanic diatom (Thalassiosira pseudonana) to the human malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum); and 2) Protists have inhabited the earth for hundreds of millions of years, which provides a wealth of evolutionary data to be a...

s new ways of using biological material to solve difficult computational problems continue to emerge, several fundamental questions arise: Are these techniques practical? If so, what are the key appli-cations? Do the techniques scale to larger prob-lems? Do they give us anything more than a few elegant theoretical insights into the nature of com-putation? Ultimately, is this a productive endeav...